taut wire
by robin hoods
Summary: Iori pursed his lips after taking the straw of his pudding out of his mouth. "Have you considered talking to Hikari and Takeru?" Aka, that fic in which obliviousness is an Olympic sport, and Daisuke is going for the gold medal. Daikeru. One-sides Daikari.


**Title:** taut wire  
 **Summary:** "Still," he told Iori, who was quietly sipping pudding from a packet next to him, "it's frustrating."

Iori pursed his lips after taking the straw out of his mouth. "Have you considered talking to Hikari and Takeru?"

"Have I- what? Of course I talk to them. I see them every day, why wouldn't I talk to them?"

"No," Iori said, speaking slowly as if he really wanted Daisuke to get it this time, "I mean, talking. About serious things."

Aka, that fic in which obliviousness is an Olympic sport, and Daisuke is going for the gold medal.

 **Notes:** I basically started writing this because I re-watched Digimon and was feeling nostalgic. And then it became super long. Oops.

Anyway, some details in this aren't entirely canonical, and at some point the characters make fun of Yamato because of his career choices (yes, epilogue, I'm looking at you). Crossposted to ao3.

* * *

i

Some days, Daisuke felt like butter spread too thin on bread whenever they entered the digital world. It wasn't as if they could be everywhere at once, and villages seemed to be destroyed at twice the rate they managed to rebuild them. Even with their Digimon's support, even with Ken helping out, it always was too much, too often, too everything. He didn't exactly admit it out loud, but having an enemy to focus on, to defeat, that had been a lot easier than this constant building and rebuilding going on in an endless loop.

At least the tiny baby Digimon made it worth it. They knew they were doing a good thing, for them, so at least the world could be brought back to order once more. It still didn't negate the fact that most days, he returned from the digital world completely exhausted. He'd already walked into the elevator doors once (which Chibimon found completely hilarious), and he'd rather not have a repeat of that. (He was forever grateful to Koushirou, because his discovery of them being able to open a gate from any computer meant that Daisuke could immediately fall into bed when he returned.)

During the holidays he'd wake up at an ungodly hour in the morning, sometimes woken by Chibimon's pokes, other times because of his ravenous hunger – or, most of the time, both. Contrary to other people's opinions ( _Takeru_ ), rice with ketchup was a perfectly acceptable 3 am snack, thank you very much.

The following morning the entire cycle started over – unless he had soccer practice, which Daisuke had never in his life skipped. It could've been worse, he supposed. Hikari-chan could be going on a date with Takeru right this second. His stomach twisted painfully at the thought of beautiful, pretty, amazing Hikari-chan holding hands with Takeru. Laughing at one of Takeru's jokes. Locking lips with Takeru.

Daisuke loudly groaned into his pillow, and next to him Chibimon sleepily nuzzled his ear.

It felt like Hikari-chan didn't notice him at all. Of course, they were friends, but he wanted to be more than just friends. His fantasies had grown a little ridiculous lately. Him, taking down a Dark Tower with his bare hands, Hikari-chan rushing towards him with sparkling eyes and saying ' _you're so amazing Daisuke-kun!'_ Or that other fantasy where XV-mon inexplicably evolved into some angel type digimon, and he, Hikari and their digimon would fly away into the sunset. Or something equally sappy and romantic.

No doubt everyone would make fun of him if they knew, so Daisuke kept those particular thoughts to himself.

But even if he never told anyone, that didn't mean he didn't find himself daydreaming while carrying around logs for rebuilding, or stones for that bridge that got blown up not once, but _twice_ , or whenever XV-mon allowed him to ride around on his shoulder (which was awesome, because he could see farther than he could just on his own two feet).

Despite the exhaustion, and the monotony of the work, he still had a great deal of fun. Playing soccer with the baby digimon was kind of hilarious (no, really, their squishy faces while they tried to hit the ball were another league of their own). The only times when he found himself irritated were when Takeru said,

"Hey, Daisuke, how many rocks have you moved so far?"

And Daisuke would turn around, boulder in hand, and boast that he'd already moved _at least_ ten of them!

And of _course_ Takeru then said, "Oh really? I think I'm on number twelve so far."

Daisuke would stomp over to the boulder's destination (and if he was lucky, _not_ fall over his own feet), fume until he was certain steam was coming out of his ears, until he heard Hikari-chan's twinkle of a laugh, her mouth hidden behind her hand.

"Takeru's just teasing, Daisuke," she said, "you've both done a great job so far." And then she smiled and all the world was right again.

(Well, it would've been nice if she'd only complimented him for a job well done, but you couldn't have everything you wanted. Besides, at least it meant she had noticed him!)

Takeru almost always seemed to one-up Daisuke though, whatever they were working on. Almost as if he did it to spite him. As if Daisuke didn't know that Takeru was Hikari-chan's best friend. That's what she said they were, anyway, so that meant there was a sliver of hope for him, right?

ii

A year later, they'd agreed to meet up in the computer lab, including Miyako who currently attended a different school, and they'd all hurriedly tried to hide their digimon and D-3's when they heard unfamiliar footsteps coming closer.

"Hey guys," Takeru said when he opened the door, leaning on crutches. "Glad to see you hadn't left without me yet." Everyone sighed in relief.

"We thought you might be a teacher," Hikari elaborated.

"Or a janitor," Miyako added.

"What's a jani-tor?" Poromon asked, peering down at Takeru's foot. "And why's your foot like that, Takeru?"

"Yeah, Takeru," Daisuke added, "what'd you do with your foot?"

"Just a little basketball incident." He grinned a little embarrassedly, and then shrugged while leaning on his unbroken foot. "Guess I won't be playing for a while now, huh?"

"Is going to the Digiworld a good plan? If you can't walk..." Iori said, looking thoughtful.

"That's okay," Patamon piped up from atop Takeru's head, "he can ride on my back once I've evolved, right, Takeru?" His partner nodded encouragingly.

"Well, I guess that's all right," Hikari slowly said. "I hope it doesn't hurt too much?"

"Ah, well, we've been through worse than a couple of broken bones, haven't we?"

It's more of a tradition now than an actual necessity, but Miyako still couldn't help but cry out, "All right, chosen kids, let's roll!"

They met up with Ken in the Digital World, because he still felt a bit awkward meeting them at a school he never studied at when he could also just use his own computer to enter the digital world. Daisuke thought to himself that _they_ could have done that, but Miyako insisted that it would be like a reunion. Even if she was the only one who no longer attended to their school.

"I missed this," Miyako sighed next to him, holding Hawkmon close to her.

"You missed landing on top of each other the entire time?" Daisuke scooted a little further; Miyako had almost been sitting in his lap when he had sat up.

"Well it's not _my_ aim that's completely terrible, you know?"

"What am I supposed to aim at when I'm being projected out of a television?!"

"Uh, guys, my foot? You're almost on top of it."

Both Miyako and Daisuke scrambled aside and Hikari helped Takeru up and handed him his crutches. "I'm glad there are no enemies to be fought this time," she said, and Tailmon nodded in agreement.

"Can you imagine me whacking an evil Digimon with one of these?" Takeru waved one of his crutches around, almost hitting Daisuke who quickly moved out of the way.

"Hey, watch where you're swinging that!"

"Oops, sorry. Guess I forgot you weren't one of them," Takeru chuckled, as did most everyone else, while Daisuke rolled his eyes, though he wasn't really mad.

"Let me evolve, Takeru, so you can hop on," Patamon intervened, almost too excited. It had probably been a while since he'd had an excuse to gallop around in his armor evolution. Not that any of them had had much of reason to evolve.

It had been quiet in the Digital World ever since they'd defeated their last enemy.

iii

Daisuke hated homework. He didn't so much mind going to school (well, some days, anyway), but when he got home he wanted to play soccer, or videogames, or basically do anything that wasn't school-related. He still didn't know how he had passed the entrance exam for junior high school, but he had. Daisuke suspected it might have had something to do with Ken frequently tutoring him.

"Apparently failing doesn't scare you," Ken had said, "so I'm afraid we'll have to use other... methods." He'd smiled very brightly after that, and somehow that had terrified Daisuke a lot more than witnessing Ken cackling while he was the Digimon Kaiser.

Ultimately, it had led to Ken supervising Daisuke's study sessions, during which he got to practice his angry face whenever Daisuke got distracted by the television. Or his computer. Or Chibimon. Or his phone. Or food in the fridge. Ken called it Daisuke's Law: anything that _can_ distract Daisuke, _will_ distract Daisuke.

And, okay, maybe he did get distracted a lot, but that was what he had Ken for, right? Up until they both went to junior high school, anyway.

"Maybe you should ask Takeru to study together?" Ken suggested on the phone, because he was incredibly busy with school and couldn't come over as often. "He'll be going to the same junior high, right?"

That much was true. And the problem wasn't that he hated Takeru, or even disliked him. He disliked things like getting up early, or mustard, or Jun taking up way too much time in the bathroom when he had to piss. But he didn't dislike Takeru. He wouldn't exactly call them close friends, but being around someone for several years and saving the world with them did help in getting to know someone better.

(Daisuke recalled an incident in which Takeru's hat had, unfortunately, been burned. "It's okay," he'd told told Daisuke and Fladramon. "At least it's not my hair! And besides, I have six more of those hats at home.")

"I guess he is," Daisuke replied.

"Please stop pouting. And don't tell me that you're not, I can tell that you are."

Daisuke groaned, covering his face with his hand. "You stop doing that freaky 'I know what your face looks like right now' thing."

"It's almost as if I know you." Ken sounded amused, though, and Daisuke didn't actually mind all that much. That was why they were best friends, after all. "But really, ask him. I know he won't decline."

(This really wasn't so much about dislike, as it was about ego.)

"Yeah, okay. Maybe." Ken sighed, and then said he had to go, because he still had homework to do. And he sternly reminded Daisuke that he had to do his too, even if he didn't want to.

"Hey!" Jun called from outside his door, and fiercely knocked a few times. "Are you done yet with the phone? Ayaka-chan was going to call me, and she can't if you're chatting up your girlfriend."

"Ken isn't my girlfriend," Daisuke grumbled when he threw the door open and thrust the phone into Jun's waiting hands.

"I know," she chirped, "'cause my little brother's a dumb little shit who can't even get a date."

"Yamato still hasn't called you back, has he?" Daisuke countered, and slammed the door in her face.

iv

Daisuke was fifteen, and he had never had a date. Or, more specifically, he had never had a date with _Hikari-chan_. He had asked, plenty of times, but she always turned him down with a smile and a, "not today, Daisuke." So he'd kept his hopes up, for several years now, but it probably was never gonna happen.

He got along with Takeru fairly well these days, although he still couldn't help the occasional bout of angry jealousy that appeared whenever he saw him and Hikari together. At least he had one thing going for him: Takeru and Hikari had never gone on a date together either, so that meant it wasn't just Daisuke getting rejected. On the other hand, he'd never seen Takeru asking her out on a date before. He did find it hard to believe they'd never even so much as kissed. He could be jealous about it, but he wasn't blind. Hikari and Takeru had already been close friends before Daisuke had even met either of them.

"Still," he told Iori, who was quietly sipping pudding from a packet next to him, "it's frustrating."

Iori pursed his lips after taking the straw out of his mouth. "Have you considered talking to them?"

"Have I- what? Of course I talk to them. I see them every day, why wouldn't I talk to them?"

"No," Iori said, speaking slowly as if he really wanted Daisuke to get it this time, "I mean, _talking_. About serious things. Maybe Hikari-san doesn't take you seriously anymore because you don't either."

"You think she doesn't?"

Iori shrugged. "I don't know. That's why I suggested you talk to her. Or him. I may be the youngest, but I do notice things." He took another sip from his pudding.

"What kind of things? Bad things, good things? Does she say stuff about me, to you?"

Iori finally turned to face him. "Don't worry too much, Daisuke. Nothing is ever as bad as you think it may be. But I have kendo practice, so I'll see you tomorrow." He shrugged on his backpack. "Bye!"

Daisuke stared after him. "...I have no idea what any of that meant."

v

By this time, all of them had entered high school, except for Iori, who was in his last year of junior high. As fate would have it, Daisuke ended up going to the same school as Takeru, and they even winded up being in the same class. Hikari-chan went to the same school as Miyako and Ken, and they all tried to meet up as often as possible. Sometimes in the real world, and sometimes in the digital one.

Today was one of these meet-ups. Fortunately, Daisuke had set his alarm. Unfortunately, he had slept straight through it.

"Daisuke. Hey, Daisuke." A paw poked his cheek, then his nose. Daisuke simply snored and made a muffled sound with his mouth. The paw pulled on his hair this time, none too lightly. "Daisuke, you're late!"

"Chibimon, you're on my face."

"Yes! You're late!"

"What?! Why didn't you wake me!" Sheets flew into the air, along with pajamas, and the soccer ball that had accidentally been left in the corner of his bed when he fell asleep.

"I did! I mean, I tried, but you're a really heavy sleeper. I even licked your cheek! Twice!"

"Ugh, really?" He wiped his hand over his cheek. "Gross." He rolled his eyes, and looked under his bed. "Have you seen my socks? Or the shirt I wore yesterday, for that matter? Or maybe I should wear a clean one. That's probably best."

"Clean everything," Chibimon declared, when Daisuke retreated from under the bed with a mouldy-looking sock in his hand. "And, uh... I don't think you should've thrown that sock out the window."

"Mom will have my head if she knows it's mine, this way it will join... the communal garbage of the world."

"Is that a thing?"

"If it wasn't before, it is now." Daisuke nodded proudly, until he remembered he was still standing in his underwear, and quickly got dressed to get out the door.

And then he quickly returned because he'd left Chibimon sitting on the floor, still staring at the door that Daisuke had just left through.

At least nowadays, he was smart enough to stop outside a minimart to get some snacks for everyone (in other words, the digimon), so when he finally reached the tree where they'd agreed to meet, he held up his bag. "Sorry I'm late. Had to pick up some stuff on the way here."

"Yeah, but only after-" Daisuke quickly covered Chibimon's mouth, who after all these years still hadn't quite mastered the art of little white lies.

They all laughed, though. "Come sit," Hikari-chan said, "you just missed Miyako telling us about university applications."

"Well, I'm glad I did," Daisuke said and quickly ducked when she threw her slipper at his head. "I just don't want to talk about school during the weekend. Besides, isn't it a bit early to look into all that?"

"Can't start too early," Miyako told him.

"As you've clearly explained to us," Takeru said, before winking at Daisuke.

"She's right, though," Ken said, and Daisuke clearly saw Miyako flashing a smile at him. "Your future's pretty important."

"I dunno," Daisuke said, "as long as I'm happy I don't really care what I do." He'd never really cared much about school. He still missed having those adventures down in the digital world, even if sometimes they'd had to fear for their lives. But at least it had been fun. He just thought college might not be as life-changing as that experience had been.

"You guys should hear what Yamato just told me last week," Takeru distracted the group, and proceeded to tell them about Yamato's giant unfulfilled (and until then, unknown to them all) dream of being an astronaut. And that really came out of nowhere, Daisuke had to agree, even if he didn't know Yamato as well as he would've liked to.

"I can't really imagine Yamato in space," Hikari mused, "do you think Gabumon would join him?"

"A digimon in space!" Patamon excitedly said. "That's a first!"

They all laughed, and it did feel like old times again. Only without having to run for their lives, of course.

vi

"Hikari-chan?"

"I hadn't really expected you, Daisuke," she said as she let him inside her home, "or anyone, for that matter."

"Yeah, sorry," he apologised, "I was just walking by your apartment building and I... guess I wanted to see if you were home?"

"Well, I am!" She smiled. "Juice?" He nodded, and she moved around in the kitchen before sitting down next to him at the table. "Is something bothering you?"

"I don't know," he said, "I guess. Maybe?"

"Being confused is be hard, isn't it?" He suddenly wondered what she knew about him that he himself didn't yet.

"Iori said I should talk to you, some time ago... But I never did. 'Cause I thought I wouldn't really know what to say. Or I'd just make a fool of myself, like usual. Like I probably am now."

"You're not making a fool of yourself simply by wanting to talk," Hikari said, and smiled at him, kindly. "We should do it more often, actually. I miss having you around at school."

"You do?"

"Yeah. It's... quieter. And I remember you always managed to get everyone's spirits up on a boring day."

"Ah, yeah. I guess so," he smiled, feeling embarrassed. "I just wanted to know... I mean, the truth is..." He wasn't entirely sure what the truth _was_. He hadn't walked up the steps to Hikari's apartment for any specific reason, but he remembered what Iori had said. That he needed to talk. Even if it was hard, even if he wanted to make a joke of it (of himself). "I've always wondered about you and Takeru," he said, and promptly wanted to sink into a hole. Him and his big mouth.

"Takeru and me... I dunno, we've been best friends for as long as I can remember. Or, well, he's always been a big part of my life. Before you, Miyako and Iori came around, he was the only person my age I could talk to about... what had happened to us. And however much I love Taichi, it really isn't the same, talking to your big brother."

"Well, at least your sibling knows what it was like. It's not as if I can talk to Jun about it."

"I guess it does make it easier, for me," Hikari thoughtfully said. "But Taichi always went to Yamato or Sora. He's closest to them. And I suppose he didn't want to talk to his little sister. I mean, we do talk, just... not as much as I do with Takeru."

"Well, I know how that feels," Daisuke mumbled, and Hikari smiled.

"With Takeru, though, I could always be myself. He's Yamato's younger brother, so he understood. During the first time we were in the digital world, some things happened that will always connect us. I don't think I'll ever be as scared again as I was back then, but somehow, the two of us... We managed to make it."

"Taichi-senpai has told us bits about the Dark Masters before, but never the entire story."

"He always proudly tells the part of the story that's his, and of course the important part is that we did manage to save the world. But I know he would never speak for me, or Takeru. That's not the kind of brother he is."

"I would definitely prefer him over Jun any day... I mean, she's a nice girl. I just wish she wasn't my sister sometimes."

"I even feel that way about Taichi sometimes. I think we all have those moments. Except for Takeru, he'd never hear a bad word about Yamato."

Daisuke snorted. "That definitely explains some things..."

"But I guess you were wondering about what's going on between me and Takeru in a more than just friends way, right?"

"I, um... yeah." Daisuke actually blushed and looked away. "I guess. I mean, if you want to say anything about it. At all."

"That's alright," Hikari said. "But Takeru and I are just friends. Close friends, definitely, but we'll never be more than that."

"Really?" he couldn't help but ask. "I always thought that..." Well, he'd always thought they'd end up married, with kids, and a nice little house. It just seemed really _them_. But apparently not, according to Hikari.

"Most people seem to think so, so I don't blame you. I'm really sorry for leading you on as well, especially now that you know this. I've known for a long time that Takeru and I would never..."

"Get together?" Daisuke filled in, and she nodded.

"It's not really my place to tell you why, because that's personal, and like I know I said earlier that Taichi doesn't like speaking for other people, but neither do I. If you really want to know the details, you have to ask Takeru yourself."

"Okay..." he slowly said, not really understanding why she was telling him this. "You've always turned me down, though. Can I... I mean, why?" Maybe he'd stopped wanting her to say yes a long time ago, already, and this was just closure. He didn't understand his own feelings sometimes.

"I've never really... I mean, don't get me wrong, I like you. I just didn't know how. It was never my intention to hurt you, but I know I've always wanted to please everyone. And you can't always do that, even if you really want to. I guess with everything that happened, I've never wanted to drag you down with my baggage. You've really helped me a lot, as my friend, but I don't think I'm ready for anything else."

"That's..." It was probably a bad time to say he wasn't good with words (and besides, Hikari would know that). "That's okay," he finally said, and he actually felt good saying it. "I mean, maybe I was just going through the motions anyway. So that's alright." He grinned, and she smiled back at him.

"I'm glad. We should hang out more often. We really don't as often as I'd like."

"We should," he agreed, "I guess with us going to different schools, it's a bit more difficult. I'd say you could come play videogames at my place, but I dunno if that's really your thing."

"Trust me," Hikari said, cracking her knuckles, "I've been playing Halo with Taichi for years, I definitely know my way around a controller."

vii

Daisuke had had Hikari's words stuck in his head for weeks now. If he really wanted to know why, he should ask Takeru. He was curious by nature, and had had to stop himself twice now by biting his tongue, but he still really wanted to know what kind of thing Takeru should be telling him himself.

It didn't help that he studied with Takeru twice a week, because now he really did try to focus on his books as much as possible so he didn't have to look at his friend (and consequently wonder _why not_ ). Of course, Daisuke focusing on his studies for a change did cause some raised eyebrows.

"Has something bitten you in the ass that I just don't know about?" Takeru asked. "Because if that happened, I really need to know their secret. I don't think I've ever seen you study this hard."

"Shut up, Takeru." His friend just laughed in return.

"No hard feelings, man. It's a good thing! Ken would be really proud of you."

"Is it really that out of character for me to want to... graduate high school?"

"That's not for another year, though. I dunno. As long as your heart's in it, I guess. You're actually looking at me like I'm distracting you. That's a first."

"Very funny."

"Go ahead and study. By all means."

It was quiet in the apartment, for a while. No sound except for rustling pages, the scratches of pen on paper, and breathing.

From the other end of the table, Daisuke could see Chibimon pulling himself up by the edges, and then walk over to them, loudly declaring he was bored.

"Here," Takeru said, plucking his white hat off his head. "I'm kind of bored as well, but at least this way your head will be warm."

"I think my entire body will be warm underneath here," Chibimon's voice came from beneath the hat. He lifted it up slightly to peer at them. "Is it supposed to work like that?"

"It didn't before, but it does now," Takeru said, pulled up the hat again, and laid it upside down on the table. "I bet that's more comfortable than lying on the table."

Chibimon crawled into the hat, and curled up; despite the fact he'd said he was bored earlier, he seemed to be content to take a nap in the middle of the table. In Takeru's hat.

"Good thinking," Daisuke said at last, momentarily distracted.

"He'll probably be hungry when he wakes up," Takeru said, "I'd keep something handy."

"The question is, when isn't he hungry?" Daisuke said, and Takeru laughed.

"I think he inherited that quality from you," he said with a wink.

"Could be worse," Daisuke said, leaning his chin on his hand. If he wanted to ask Takeru, he should probably do it now. "He could be taking after you." Okay, maybe not.

"Well, you still tolerate me after all these years, so I can't be all that bad, right?"

"Could be worse," Daisuke said again, and this time he grinned. "At least we're no longer fighting over Hikari-chan?"

"You thought we were?" Takeru chuckled, a smile playing around his lips.

"I thought that was the base of us being nemeses, and all that. That you and I were, I dunno, both vying for her attention? But I'm not anymore. We talked, so, we're just friends now and I'm not gonna ask her out again."

"You do know there's never been any competition from that side from me, right?"

"Never?"

"Well, maybe when I was young and still confused... But now I know Hikari and I are meant to be just friends. I mean, if she were a guy, maybe I'd reconsider." Daisuke stared at him. "I thought everyone had it figured out by now, but, um. I guess not? I'm gay."

"I... didn't know. I don't think I ever even considered it."

"More people have said that." Takeru looked completely relaxed admitting this, as if he came out every day like it's no big deal.

"If I'd had to put my money on someone being gay, I would've guessed Ken if I didn't know Ken so well. But you? You're serious, right?" In all honesty, he felt really confused. If Takeru hadn't even liked Hikari all this time, had all their exchanges just been in his head?

"Well, what can I do to convince you?" Takeru said it jokingly, but for a moment Daisuke actually considered asking Takeru to kiss him. (If that was supposed to prove anything, at least it showed Daisuke wasn't 100% heterosexual himself.)

"You don't have to convince me," he finally said, feeling a little awkward when Takeru looked at him rather intensely.

"Don't take this as an insult," Takeru said, "but you can be rather dense."

Before Daisuke realised what he was doing, Takeru had leaned forward and captured his lips with his own. At least Takeru was an excellent mindreader, Daisuke thought, before kissing back just as fiercely.

"I should've done this a lot sooner, shouldn't I?" Takeru said.

"Maybe if you had, I wouldn't have thought you were in love with Hikari-chan."

"I've never been in love with her. I've, uh, actually been trying to get your attention for a while now."

"If I only noticed just now, you've been doing pretty bad job." Daisuke nodded to himself, almost bumping foreheads with Takeru because they were still so close.

"Yeah, I know. I just didn't really know how to say, 'hey, that was an awesome play at the soccer game, by the way, would you like to go on a date?'"

"You just said it! It wasn't that hard."

"But would you?"

"Would I what?"

"Go on a date? With me?" Takeru looked away now, coming across as shy all of a sudden.

"Oh, I don't know," Daisuke said, and then, before Takeru could expect it, he pinned him against the side of the table. "How about you kiss me again, and I'll consider it?" He wiggled his eyebrows for extra effect, and Takeru briefly smiled before grabbing hold of his face and pulling him down towards him.

"Daisuke? Why is your face touching Takeru's? What are you doing?" Both boys froze in their tracks, until Chibimon added: "Is it a game? Oh! Can I play too?"

Takeru promptly choked, and this time their heads actually did join together in a rather unceremonious clunk. Daisuke fell over clutching his head. Takeru was actually hunched over, laughing like his life depended on it.

"This is the most ridiculous day ever," Daisuke said, after the pain had subsided a bit. "And yeah, I'll go. If you'll have me."

"As long as you only bring yourself, it's cool." They both glanced at Chibimon at the same time, who rolled his eyes and flopped over into the hat where he mumbled some words (perhaps some profanity he'd picked up from watching television) that they couldn't hear.

Daisuke finally scrambled up off the floor, and went to rummage in one of the cabinets in the kitchen.

"For putting up with us," he told Chibimon after putting the bag of marshmallows with strawberry filling next to him. He then turned to Takeru, "Have I ever shown you my room?"

"Yeah, I've seen it befo-"

"I thought you hadn't." Chibimon had buried his face in the bag. "I'll just show you that new, uh, videogame I got." He grinned, pushed Takeru through the door, and then slammed it behind them.


End file.
